Clause 48 - Criminal investigations or proceedings
Sexual Offences Bill [Lords]
9:45 am
Mr Dominic Grieve (Beaconsfield, Conservative)
I beg to move amendment No. 237, in
clause 48, page 25, line 5, leave out subsection (4).
Clause 48 provides, understandably, an exemption in relation to indecent photographs under clause 47 for ''Criminal investigations or proceedings''. I understand that to mean that if copies of an indecent photograph have to be made to be circulated in preparation for a trial, those engaged in that process are not thereby exposed to criminal penalties. It also applies to those who need to circulate such material because they are trying to catch someone or identify the person who has been photographed. That all makes eminent sense.
However I was slightly more curious about subsection (4). Separately from the other
authorisations, there is an authorisation here that can be
''given by the Director-General of the Security Service if it appears to him necessary for the exercise of any of the functions of the Service.''
The Security Service may well get involved, for example, in an investigation into the trafficking of underage children for sexual purposes, in which case the photographs will have to be circulated. The small query that emerged in my mind was whether that would give a blanket permission to the Security Service to take photographs of a Ruritanian chargé d'affaires having sex with a 13-year-old for the purposes of inducing him to co-operate with the Security Service thereafter. Although I know that these are subjects over which delicate veils are drawn, I wonder whether, before we gave a statutory sanction to such activities, we might hear from the Minister what is actually involved.